Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Round Stack

it was one week before Christmas and I was taking photos outdoors. In Minnesota!!!!!!!!!

How crazy is that?

You've all seen Erin's brilliant little circular earbud pouch, right? I fell in love with its shape immediately upon seeing it. And in spite of imposing a sewing ban on myself this entire Christmas/advent (did you notice?), I decided that these would be a happy exception - they were round, they were simple and they were the cutest things I'd seen in a long time. And fast. I finished all of them in two days, from cutting to hand-stitching the vinyl, to snipping of the last threads.

Look- it's the designer gallery of fame -

Jessica Jones, Heather Ross and Amy Butler,

bookended by the peerless Orla.

Love Orla.

Those were for the girls.

The boys had all the fun stuff this year!

Faux leather aka vinyl

(the topstitching had to be done by hand)

and neoprene.

I've been dying to sew with neoprene.

The naysayers were right, though - neoprene isn't friendly. I needed a roller foot for this thickness of neoprene (4mm), which I didn't have, of course. So I made my serger do the dirty work. And I'm still not satisfied. Maybe in the new year I'll work on my neoprene-with-home-sewing-machine technique a bit more. Or buy myself an industrial machine. I've been coveting one for a very long time.

I kept this one, and gave the rest away.

Two other gifts - some tea towels trimmed with ribbon, from the kids to their teachers and grandparents. This idea came from here.

It's a great gift idea, not only because it is infinitely practical, but even the kids could sew them. Emily and Jenna picked their ribbons and sewed theirs, and I sewed Kate's (she picked her ribbons).

The tea towels were accompanied by these homemade cookies, blogged about here.

I am happy to say that once sewing sanctions are lifted in chez ikatbag, I might finally start some real sewing! Like a qipao top for the Chinese New Year! With those frog buttons that are half-made (as is almost everything around here). Hope your Christmas was lovely and restful!

I was so excited to see krumkake in your cookie tray! I was introduced to Norwegian goodies by Husband, and I've fallen in love :) We now make lefse every year at Christmas and most years we make krumkake, kringla, and/or flatbread, too!

I love the ribbon towel idea. I'm going to have to remember that in the future for gifts!~Natalie

@vegetablogYes, Natalie- krumkake is quite phenomenal! We also had krensekake at our wedding, made by a family friend. My current favorite dessert at Christmas, though, is sandbakkels, which I still mentally call Sun- Buckles. Do you know those? The little open pastry shells filled with vanilla ice cream and lingonberries? Yum.

I loved the little ear bud holder pattern too.I have been recently been doing a far bit of sewing with vinyl. And I am finding a walking foot on my regular sewing machine is working very well. I have never been able to do the whole "tape on the machine foot" thing.I too have been busting to sew with neoprene. Would love to hear any tips you come up with

@Mrs DMrs D - yes, I think I'd die without my walking foot. Mine comes integrated with my machine (it's a Pfaff) so I use it all the time without even realizing it. It works really well with vinyl. I don't have a problem sewing with vinyl, unless it's very thick and just won't fit under the presser foot. Like this earbud pouch, which, at its edge, plus the little tab holding the slip-ring, was 12 layers thick (and thus had to be hand-stitched). But neoprene was hard, for different reasons - the main being that mine was too thick for my presser foot. The walking foot couldn't get it to move either, because it couldn't be compressed enough to slide under. That, and the rubbery-spongeness of the neoprene - so sticky! I figured it was either a presser foot with a higher allowance or a roller foot. I'll try it again with thinner neoprene and see how that works!

Hello and Welcome!

I am a gratefully unemployed mom of three girls, all of whom are growing up much too soon! I like piles of warm, fresh laundry, the smell of salt air near the beach where I used to live, making lists, anything round (like heads) and the quiet evenings sitting with the man of the house after the kids are in bed.

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You are welcome to link to this blog and to any post on this blog and use ONE or TWO photos for that purpose. Do not use photos of my children. You are welcome to pin images from my blog, if those photos do not have my children's faces in them. Please contact me if you want to use the text on, or more photos from, this blog. Do not post my tutorials on your sites. Do not translate tutorials from this blog into other languages on your site. The ideas and instructions in the tutorials are free - but please use them to only make stuff for yourself or for gifts and not to sell. Ta! For more information, this and this might be helpful.